Saturday, May 26, 2012

Ten Things Playing the Piano has Taught Me About Writing

1. Practice, Practice, Practice!
2. Don't rush: Being good takes time.
3. Don't be afraid to experiment.
4. Listen. To everything.
5. Let yourself go. Loose sight of reality. When you come back to it, everything will be different.
6. Learn through imitation.
7. My piano teacher has a sign on her wall that says, "All pianists must have wrists of butter and fingers of steel." How about, "All writers must have hearts of butter and minds of steel."
8. Don't be rigid. Fold yourself into your piece. Be flexible.
9. Each new accomplishment is a kind of amnesia. You forget about the pain that went into learning/writing the piece. And best of all, you know it was all worth it.
10. Share your work with anyone who will listen.